


Kringle

by JjdoggieS



Series: All Is Calm, All Is Bright [11]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: (I also stress baked), (I'm backdating fics bc i need them to be right), (but that was bc this fic did not want to be written), And the others are concerned, Baking, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Presents, F/F, F/M, Ficmas, Ficmas 2020, Harcest Ficmas, Harcest Ficmas 2020, M/M, Multi, Stress Baking, Vanya is stressed af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JjdoggieS/pseuds/JjdoggieS
Summary: Everyone had different ways they dealt with stress, especially around the holidays. And Vanya, after a few brief lessons from Grace and a handful of recipes, had initially channeled her nervousness into baking (and decorating) Christmas cookies and was making a batch, maybe two, of cookies a day. But now, it was just excessive.Harcest Ficmas: Day 11 - Baking
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Allison/Ben/Diego/Klaus/Luther/Vanya
Series: All Is Calm, All Is Bright [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034832
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Harcest Ficmas 2020





	Kringle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blackat14](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackat14/gifts).



Vanya had gotten a few baking lessons from Mom a few months back, as well as watched a few tutorials online and far too many baking shows since then, but mostly only when she couldn’t sleep. The reason for learning how to bake at all was that some of her former colleagues had expressed, to each other, not her, how they’d found ‘stress baking’ as very relaxing. And unsurprisingly, trying to manage possibly world-ending emotionally influenced powers you didn’t know you had for most of your life, was a  _ little _ stressful.

Through most of the year, there were various ways that Vanya had found ways to reduce her ever growing levels of stress through either mindfulness activities or find some time and space to calm herself down and simply get away from most noise. The difference between the eleven months of the year that she  _ was _ able to do that and December was the seemingly constant buzz in the air from ‘the holiday season’ that was inescapable.

Which was what lead to Vanya using  _ both _ of the kitchens at the Academy, in a near constant state of baking and decorating mostly cookies, with the occasional batches of brownies, random loaves of bread, and odd cakes. All from scratch, and in a constant need for more milk, flour, eggs, butter, and sugar whenever someone else left the Academy for  _ anything _ .

The rest of the Hargreeves siblings, while concerned about their sister’s odd behavior, even for them, they’d figured that it was best to just wait out their sister’s new spell of excessive baking, thinking it would be at most a week long endeavor. 

It was not. Not by a long shot.

As the piles, and piles, and  _ piles _ of baked goods mounted up, and Vanya’s stress baking stretching into its fourth week, there was the obvious realization between Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, and Ben that evidently this new  _ thing _ of Vanya’s wasn’t going to be going away on its own. There was something that they had to do, neither they nor Vanya, could keep at this for much longer. And Hargreeves took care of their own.

There was, however, the important aspect of  _ not _ having all six of them approach Vanya at the same time, knowing how poorly  _ any _ of them have, or would, react to being practically surrounded by  _ all _ their siblings, and came to the consensus that one of them should talk to her and figure out what was going on. But, before any of them  _ did _ talk to Vanya and figure out what had their sister in such a state, their mother told them as she was gathering items for a grocery list that Vanya had told their mother that she was ‘stress baking’ and said nothing more about it.

Ben, as the unofficial family therapist, had been nearly unanimously picked to the one to figure out  _ exactly _ what had caused their sister ‘stress baking’ at nearly all hours for weeks on end. The rest of the Hargreeves remained upstairs, keeping as quiet as they could be while Ben descended two flights of stairs into the basement’s kitchen just as one of Vanya’s many timers started beeping.

“Hey, Vanya.” Ben called, approaching his sister but staying nearer to the table than the countertops covered in baking trays, doughs, icings, and dirtied, oiled, and possibly stained dishes. And when she didn’t look over at him from what she’d been doing he added, “What are you doing?” That was a good way to start right?

The metal cooking sheet that had  _ just _ been pulled from the oven dropped onto one of the few free spaces between the coated counters and crowded table, as Vanya simply told him, “Baking cookies.” quickly glancing at him before 

Honestly, Ben should’ve expected that.

“No, yeah I kind of noticed that.” Ben told her, gesturing to the mass of baking supplies, ingredients, and creations that filled the room, and  _ surprisingly  _ got a laugh from Vanya, which was quickly followed by a wince.

Vanya dropped her head, gaze lingering in the baking tray before her rather than on Ben, “Oh, yeah, sorry about all this.” she muttered, “It’s probably been getting a  _ little _ out of hand.”

“Just a little.” Ben said, keeping his tone light, and joking,  _ hopefully  _ so Vanya knew that no one was blaming her for anything, just that they wanted to help her in whatever way they could. But when his sister seemed to slump down more ever so slightly, he carefully reached across the corner of the kitchen table, placed one of his hands onto hers, and added, “What’s going on Vanya? We just want to help.”

The embarrassment that  _ had been _ across Vanya’s features and draped across her body seemed to disappear in an instant, turning to near absolute neutrality. “Oh, um,” she started, “it’s um, it’s nothing really. It’s just, I’ll, I’ll just, I’ll try to do  _ less _ of all this.” Any further questioning that Ben had for Vanya was met with short, emotionally detached answers as she busied herself with her bakes. Picking up on the very obvious cues from Vanya that she wouldn't be divulging any more information to him, Ben dejectedly returned to his siblings without any further leads.

And within 10 minutes of Ben returning upstairs, Luther was going down to try and talk to Vanya, hoping to get  _ something _ useful.

He did not.

After Ben and Luther both weren’t able to get any information from Vanya, while the rest of the Hargreeves siblings had decided it was likely better to give their sister some space, seeing as Luther told them that she was in an evidently sour mood when he’d tried coaxing anything out of her, Klaus had slipped out, mostly unnoticed, and meandered down to the kitchen just as Vanya was piping white icing onto gingerbread people.

“Hey Van-Van!” Klaus called as he walked in, moving an emptied cookie sheet that had little outlines of people on it so he could settle onto the kitchen table, handing the sheet to Vanya when she reached over to grab it from him. “So,” Klaus started, grabbing a handful of candies and sticking them onto the iced gingerbread people that he could reach, “how’s life, sister dearest?”

Rather than give him the obligatory ‘good’ or ‘fine’ that most people did, Vanya, whether she realized it or not, just huffed, “Stressful.” as she moved between gingerbread people. 

Now they were getting somewhere.

“Really?” Klaus asked, getting a nod from Vanya as she finished icing the last two gingerbread people, “What’s causing you to be so stressed babe?” His sister stiffed, biting her lip, looking like she wanted to same something,  _ hopefully whatever was bothering her _ , but wasn’t sure if she should. “You know,” Klaus continued, hoping that talking more would help Vanya know he wasn’t pressuring her into talking, just that the option to tell him whatever was bothering her was open (god Ben’s therapist ness and general maturity was rubbing off on him, disgusting), “I’ve probably told Ben, and Diego, way more about some of my weirdest issues and oddest, and honestly terrifying, little adventures. And  _ I _ think it’s helped a lot. No one can understand a Hargreeve like a Hargreeve you know Van.”

Klaus could see the smallest of smiles working its way onto Vanya’s face, obviously he was making more progress than Ben  _ or _ Luther could. “I could tell you one of them if you want Van-Van.” Klaus told her, watching with amusement as Vanya’s head shot up with a mixed look of panic and like she was holding back a laugh.

“No, no. Um, no need for that.” Vanya quickly told him, leaving the mostly empty piping bag she’d been using on the kitchen table, “It’s just that, um. I, I don’t know if you’d understand it but, actually, you’re more likely to understand it than the others.” Klaus could tell she was talking more to herself than to him, but giving his (unofficial baby) sister a way to vent frustrations was still good. “It's like, well with my, um, my  _ powers _ ,” Vanya always talked about her powers as if she  _ still _ couldn’t believe she had them even after nearly nine months of having and training them, (it's almost like living nearly your whole life believing a lie fucked you up massively or something, thanks  _ Reginald _ ) “there’s normally this constant, quiet buzzing of like energy, from the, the sound waves. And most of the time it’s been, manageable. Like I could find ways to deal with it. But lately, um with like, the holidays and everything, the buzzing is like, a lot louder than normal, it's just harder to, to deal with.” 

That, that actually made a lot of sense. And it seemed like it was  _ kind of _ like his not as nice ghosty friends, the ones that would just scream for his attention once they knew he could hear and see them. “And that’s why you’ve been baking a lot?” Klaus asked, “Because it helps?”

“I’ve  _ heard _ that ‘stress baking’ was like therapeutic or something.” Vanya told him with a nod, “And it’s kind of helped, but like, more because it's a distraction, and something else to focus on not that it's actually doing any  _ real _ help.” And in the blink of an eye, not that Klaus notice anything happen that caused it, but Vanya went from being very open and talkative to shutting back down again, avoiding any and all eye contact with Klaus. “Sorry,” Vanya told him, moving the iced and decorated gingerbread people onto a clean plate, “I shouldn’t be dumping all of this on you. You’ve got you’re own stuff to deal with.”

And just like that, similarly to what Vanya had done with Ben nearly 15-20 minutes ago, no matter how Klaus  _ tried _ to get  _ some _ response from his sister, she gave him no answer. Not even short, annoyed ones like Ben  _ and _ Luther had been getting. Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. 

Klaus returned upstairs, able to hear his  _ other _ five siblings (mainly three of them) arguing, leaving Vanya with the parting promise that they would talk more later, not giving her the option to refuse. (Although if she  _ really  _ wasn’t in the mood to talk, they could just sit together and he’d keep himself entertained and as quiet as possible.) Once he did return to Luther, Diego, Allison, Five, and Ben, he announced to them that “I am so much better than you,” pointing at Ben, “and you.” pointing at Luther, “Vanny and I are as thick as thieves, the best of friends forever, and she just spilled  _ everything  _ to me.”

“Well,” Five started, taking the lead while Luther and Ben looked a bit offended while Diego and Allison were both with, insulting, looks of surprise, “what did she tell you? Her apparent new best friend. What’s wrong?” Klaus told Luther, Diego, Allison, Five, and Ben and overly theatrical retelling of his and Vanya’s talk, not leaving out the little details of him pressing gumdrops into the little gingerbread people’s stomachs on the dots of icing Vanya had piped. “So,” Five started, processing the story that Klaus had just told them, “Vanya’s stressed, because of the holidays, and the baking is like a distraction?”

“Exactly!” Klaus said.

Using the information that Klaus had gotten, the Hargreeves siblings came up with a plan to best help their sister. Early, early, early, like disgustingly early the next morning, like at 8 in the morning, Allison and Five went to Vanya’s favorite music shop, at least the one she’d told Five was her favorite, and bought something that would hopefully help with the excessive sounds and energy that were apparently coming because of the holidays. And while Allison and Five were out, Diego, Luther, and Ben were cleaning up any of the remaining, uncooked or decorated baked goods that Vanya had been working on while Klaus kept Vanya distracted  _ and _ upstairs.

And if they made a little mess of Luther’s record collection, well then he could deal with it.

Once Five and Allison got back with the package, and Luther, Ben, and Diego had cleaned up and stored all of Vanya’s baked goods, finished or otherwise, then Klaus lead Vanya down to the main floor and into that kitchen, which had over remained the cleaner of the two during the three week stress baking adventure of Vanya’s. Five handed the bag that he and Allison had procured that morning (far nicer than he  _ ever _ would’ve been to the rest of them) to Vanya, and their sister, obviously confused as to why she was getting something, cautiously reached into the plastic bag, pulling the small box out along with the paper that had been stuffed around it. Pulling what looked like some hybrid between earbuds that didn’t have a wire attached to them (wild) and tiny hearing aids.

But evidently, based on the surprised then concerned look that fell across Vanya's features as she looked between the device and each of her six siblings, she did. “What, what are these for?”

“They’re for you, stupid.” Five told her, giving Vanya the softer version of his smirk that was mostly reserved only for her. (And on occasion Ben, Five  _ definitely _ played favorites.) Five was also the only one who could call Vanya names that  _ wouldn't _ cause someone to be getting yelled at. “They’re to block out the extra noise, and hopefully help with the  _ everything _ right now.” Vanya looked surprised before giving Five a hug. (Vanya was also the only one who could actually hug Five without warning that wouldn’t end up with some kind of injury.)

“And,” Allison added, pulling another bag from behind her bag, “we got a pair for Klaus.”

“Me?” Klaus asked, equally surprised as Vanya had looked, if not more, “Why?”

Ben took over, saying “They should,  _ hopefully _ , help with the ghosts, especially the more annoying and loud ones.” Klaus read the package’s title ‘Wireless Noise-Canceling Earphones’ and from the looks of them (and the price tag sticker still stuck on the bottom) they were  _ rather expensive _ ones, quite possibly the most expensive thing he’d ever owned. (Especially a thing that wasn’t related to, or  _ were _ his former drug habit.)

The earphones that Vanya  _ and _ Klaus had gotten were far more effective than honestly any of them had expected, blocking nearly all the ghosts and excess sounds and energy, at least to a manageable amount. And the  _ next time _ there were baked goods in the house, it was  _ not _ from weeks long stress baking episodes, but rather a fun, occasional thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Update survey if you're interested -> https://forms.gle/kj4UBqMeUThavmnx6


End file.
